


A Different Direction

by InsominiacArrest



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/F, Femslash February, Fluff, Running Away
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 15:36:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5933583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsominiacArrest/pseuds/InsominiacArrest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU where Yue runs away from her arranged marriage and ends up at a circus where she meets a certain girl.</p><p>from the anon prompt: femslash Ty Lee/Yue or Katara/Ty Lee</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Different Direction

She ran away. She ran as far away as she possibly could, where they would never would think to look.

‘Traitor’ ran through her pulse like a tattoo on her brain, the word a constant in the back of her mind, a mind worn thin with guilt.

But every other time, the time she wasn't thinking, it was light, light like stars or feathers or bird bones.

No where to go but where her feet pointed. It was light.

Of course, she needed to work, she had never really grasped the concept before, but in the wake of yawning hunger and a sense of being a leaf on the wind she needed to find a job. She approached a series of tents.

They stare at her as she weaves her way to the center of the little cloth city.

“May we help you?” A gruff man finally approaches her.

She flashes her eyes up at him, “I am looking for the um, leader of this establishment.” She kept her head held high.

The man looks her up and down, examining her red outfit and covered head, “I don’t think he is looking for you though sweetheart.”

Her eyebrows slant together, how dare he, “I have a certain skill set he might be interested in.” She replies with a contained pleasantry.

“Oh yeah?” a crowd had gathered now. “I hope it’s the type where you know how to keep your mouth—“

“I’ll take her!” Someone sings from the back, their hand jutting up in the air.

The crowd parts, someone nimbly makes their way to her.

“I can take her to Oman.”

The crowd murmurs, someone is taking her hand and leading her away. A girl in a pink shirt and long braid that whipped into Yue’s face.

“Ignore Shu,” she says right away, “he doesn’t know how to greet nice ladies, or anyone really!” She says immediately in a sunny tone.

A ‘thank you.’ Stumbles out of Yue’s mouth, “all I need to do is see who is in charge here.”

The girl turns around and looks at her, eyes wide and a smile as wide as a canyon, “are you trying to work here?” It was a squeal.

She nods.

“That’s so exciting! Other girls in the show always make the camp more fun, what can you do?” They keep walking.

Yue tightens a red shawl around her shoulders and clears her throat, “I can predict the future.” She had practiced this phrase for weeks.

The girl just giggles, “Neat. I’m Ty Lee. I do acrobatics. Oh, we’re almost there.” She takes a sharp left to a very large tent off to the side.

Yue nods, “hello Ty Lee. I’m Yue.”

The girl—Ty Lee, turns and blinks at her, her smile softening for the first time. “Are you sure?” She asks tentatively.

Yue tilts her head, was she sure?

Ty Lee parts the curtain to let Yue in, “why don’t you try Ji?” She says brightly and Yue realizes she had already been found out. “I have a cousin named Ji.” She adds thoughtfully.

Yue purses her lips and then nods understandingly, she enters the tent and there was no going back.

///

Yue gets the job. She simply tells the ring master’s future, he probably wanted a wife and she told him what he wanted to hear.

It helped, he said, that her hair was such a ‘funky’ color, made her look mysterious. She got the part.

(Of course, she didn't actually believe destiny, and if she did, she doubted her this was it.)

Yue didn’t know much about real divining but she was perceptive and knew how to read the subtle hints about a person. And she really needed this.

Ty Lee let her stay in her tent.

“I’m so happy you can bunk with me!” She spouted, “my last roomie was nice too, but sooo moody, she tore up one of my costumes once when we ran out of pudding at the mess area.”

Ty Lee talked a lot, which was good, because Yue didn’t know have a lot to say. Too many secrets she had to keep close to her chest.

“You’re going to love it here.” Ty Lee grabbed her hand again and squeezed, “you can really be your own person.” She beamed.

And Yue guessed Ty Lee was also very perceptive, more than she let on.

///

Yue got into the swing of the circus life pretty easily: they moved every day and performed every night.

Sometimes seeing the faces of so many fire nation citizens made her feel sick. Red, red, red and talk of the Fire Lord and victory, all reminding of her of betrayal of her own home.

Sometimes though, all she could think was how _human_ they were, smiling and laughing like there was never a war machine under their feet.

Her duties were relatively simple, _love_ , it was all about love. 

Fire nation ladies and gentlemen, some with robes of silk and others with feet bound by rags, all came to her. ‘You will find The One,’ ‘you will find success in your personal life, job, money, whatever your heart desires.’

Their eyes would light up first, then their entire faces all at once, like candles.

‘Thank you madam Ji!’

‘You are wise,’

‘How did you know?’

‘But…will my parents approve?’

Some questions were tougher than others. She told them things that would make them happy, and it was good.

She would end every night catching the tail end of the circus performances: lion-wolves, sword swallowers. A bear (honestly, just a bear).

And of course, the tumblers. Back flips, hand springs, tight ropes, hand walking, it was like her their bodies were made of jello and string, moving at their every whim.

Yue bit her lip and felt in awe, everything about them was loose and unbound.

Ty Lee would run to her after every performance, “how was that?!” As if she didn’t know.

“Perfect.” Yue would coo, and Ty Lee would beam and then go take her bow, glowing with sweet and light.

Yue would do a few late night fortunes and then head to sleep.

The nights grew warm, and Yue wondered if she had ever felt so heated before, no snow, no ice, nowhere to be and no one to answer to (accept in the coins she gave the ring master every night).

“Yue!” She is broken out of her nostalgia for frost. “Did you hear? Some lady wants her money back.” Ty Lee says as per her usual gossip.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, Oman is arguing with her right now.”

Yue raises an eyebrow, “what does she want?”

“She says her boyfriend just broke up with her.”

Yue sighs into her hands, “and she says her fortune is wrong doesn’t she?” She groans.

“Don’t worry,” Ty Lee massages her shoulders, “Oman never gives refunds!”

Yue wasn’t sure how to feel. Ty Lee bent down to her ear, “can you really tell the future Yue?”

Yue gulped. There it was. Ty Lee was finally getting curious.

She turned around, her eyes were flashing, “I can.” She breathes.

"Can you tell mine?" She gives a mischievous look.

"Naturally." Yue assures.

Ty Lee is on her feet, “really?” She bounces over to her cot like a little kid. "I'm not an easy read I'll have you know."

Yue crawls over to sit by her, “Show me your hands.”

Ty Lee slips her hands into Yue’s, Yue turns them over and stares into the lines. She was just going to tell she would meet a nice boy and fall in love. Ty Lee was always flirting, she figured she’d like that.

However, the moon catches her eye, high in the heavens and reflects directly into their tent. Yue stares into it.

“Someone is coming for you.” She whispers, her eyes rove over the lines in her palm, the light on her face. “You have to be very careful. You are a player in a much larger game.”

Ty Lee leans forward, her face unmoving for once, still, “who’s coming?”

Yue just shakes her head, “I can’t tell. The lines are crossed.” ‘Friend’ and ‘foe’ were intermingled.

"But someone _is_ coming." She repeats in a hush.

Ty Lee makes a face, “I guess…I’ll deal with that when it happens?” She is smiles again, Yue is amazed by her ease of her mind. “Anything else?”

“Uh, oh.” Yue takes another look, the moon is behind the clouds, “love.”

“Yes!” Ty Lee bounces up and down.

“You’ll meet a nice boy. It will last for a very long time.” She says in a practiced tone.

Ty Lee was immobile for a second, her hands relaxed inside Yue’s gip, Yue peers up curiously and finds Ty Lee’s face inches from her own.

Yue holds her breath.

“What if I don’t want to meet a nice boy?”

Yue’s heart jumps into throat, the world is very small.

Ty Lee touches their noses together, “kidding!” She rolls over back into her bed. “I mean I am a little young for too much of that.”

Yue blinks at her, “Young? But…all the flirting?”

Ty Lee throws a pillow at her face, “boys just really like me, that’s all. It’s fun.”

Yue blows air out her nose, “I was going to get married once.” She quirks her own smile, “they can stay as far away from me as possible I say.”

Ty Lee laughs, “good!”

She pesters her about her marriage and what that was like, but Yue shuts her down and gently persists she go to sleep. Yue goes to closes her eyes smiling, wondering what her life might have been like otherwise.

///

She comes for Ty Lee. Comes in a sea of wrath and regalia. Like a star, like a burning ember that gathers a forest fire.

Yue wonders if she carries the title ‘royalty’ better than Yue did. She had no way to tell, though Azula certainly hadn’t run from her role.

She was given a private showing in the middle of the day, Yue waited in her tent. She was told they were not interested in a fortune telling. They knew their future.

Yue feels a little queezy and gets up the strength to go to the mess hall and eat a light lunch.

When she gets back Ty Lee is curled in a ball in the corner.

Yue immediately rushes over to her, “what’s wrong?” she whispers as she rubs her back, her nerves frayed by the sudden display.

Ty Lee shakes as she cries and murmurs to herself, “she set the net on fire.”

“What? Who?”

Ty Lee wipes her face, “she must have wanted to make me stronger.” She sounded like she was trying to convince herself of something.

Yue scowls, “why is that woman here?” She was indignant.

Ty Lee tries to smile, something watery and faint, “she wants me to help her find the avatar.”

The avatar…"why?” Yue is lost.

Ty Lee shrugs, “we are friends. She thinks I’m useful,” she looks up, “it is very flattering.”

Yue’s eyes grow wide, “you don’t have to go.” _I don’t want you to go._

“You don’t so no to princesses Ji…Yue.” She murmurs, and then looks Yue in the eye, “Or at least…I’m not very good at saying no to them.” Yue’s heart thumps in her chest, did she know? No, she couldn't.

But Ty Lee wilts again and mumbles something about friendship, loyalty, nation.

Yue wants to point out that we are friends too, that she was a princess too, wants to say ‘don’t go.’

Yue just frowns, “I’ll miss you.”

That makes Ty Lee tear up again and wipe her face, “can you do something for me?” She asks quietly.

“Yes.” She breaths, “Anything.”

“Close your eyes.”

Yue’s eyes flutter shut, it is quiet and dark.

Lips are pressed against hers, shy and firm like they had been drawn to her for a very long time.

She presses back ever so slightly.

Ty Lee pulls back, Yue opens her eyes, “wha…?”

Ty Lee scrunches her skirt up, “I always had this irrational fear Azula would be my first kiss…that she’d want to take that from me.” She looks small and vulnerable on the floor.

Yue can’t help it, she grabs Ty Lee’s hand. 

“Now she won’t be.” Ty Lee declares.

Yue kisses her again, arms wrapped around her thin shoulders and her molding against her.

It is sweet and everything she might want.

However, Ty Lee leaves the next day in the wake of the furious girl with amber eyes like wolf-foxes and who may or may not be better royalty then her.

Yue cries, but Ty Lee is as bright (this is going to be great!). Yue doesn’t believe her.

“I’ll come back for you.” She says as she waves good bye.

///

The war takes hold, more and more soldiers frequent the circus, for entertainment or looking for someone to arrest.

Yue hides, she disappears into ‘Madam Ji’ until one of them questions her eyes. Blue, light blue, 'there was a princess that had white hair I heard.' She has to run.

She goes to the forests and the caves and eventually crosses an entire ocean.

She considers going home, maybe home has changed.

But then she swallows the lump in her throat and keeps running. She follows the moon and eventually ends up on an island.

Far different from her home, no strict rules on where she went and when she had to marry. Women are _not_ just mothers and wives there. 

Yue did was she pleased, just like in the circus.

Thugh, her mouth tasted bitter and she wondered what she was waiting for, whether she would be drawn home no matter what. She slips away into another persona, ‘Ling’ this time and no one knows her real name.

Months pass, war, and distant fire, and word that the world changing passes between her ears. The world is changing.

Weeks pass and Yue is only surprised when she sees a very familiar face. She doesn’t believe it. Not for a second.

“Yue!”

She blinks again and again and again, “Ty Lee?”

“I found you!” She jumps on her, wrapping her arms around her neck. A fierce hug she doubted anything could break.

“But the fire nation…” She murmurs to herself. “Where are your friends?”

She grins, “Mai is fine. Azula is…” Her eyes wander, “gone.”

“How did you find me?” Is her second question.

Ty Lee buried her head in Yue’s neck, “aren’t you the fortune teller?” She teases, “fate.”

"I don't believe that."

"Well you should!"

Yue just shakes her head. “Hey,” Ty Lee says softly as she looks up at her, “I thought of you… _a lot_.”

Yue finds herself smiling. “What did you think about?”

She frowns and then whispers in Yue’s ear, Yue just nods.

Ty Lee kisses her, she kisses back, it was light like stars and feathers and silk sheets.

///

Ty Lee becomes one of the warriors of the island, Yue fishes, lives a simple life, though she knows what she has to do, knows it in her veins.

“Are you sure?” Ty Lee finally asks, hands on her shoulders and speaking faintly to her.

“It’s time.” She declares.

She puts her betrothal necklace back on.

Yue goes home. She has something, someone to show them. And a new way she wants to show her people.

**Author's Note:**

> I think I might be the first one to write for this ship on ao3??  
> Anyway, it was fun
> 
> If you have any requests/prompts my tumblr is insomniac-arrest.tumblr.com


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